Pretty Mots Who Know What They're Doing
by The Purple Tyrant
Summary: A collection of Kora and Aniki-centric drabbles. Femmeslash.
1. On a Bitter Wind

Disclaimer: These characters, settings, and just about everything else don't belong to me, but to the wonderful Tamora Pierce.

Author's note and warning: This is a series of drabbles centered around Kora and Aniki based on the prompts found in the community tammydrabbles over at LiveJournal. I'm warning you now that these will contain femmeslash. If you find this in some way offensive, turn back now; I will not tolerate homophobic flames and trust me when I say you do **not** want to see me get up in arms about gay rights. Otherwise, enjoy the fic!

* * *

Prompt: 1. The beginning

The tavern gained warmth from roaring fires in its kitchen and main room and from crowd of villagers inside, but it was still harsh winter in Scanra and each time the door opened, a whirl of snow snuck in on icy fingers. Kora had nestled herself into a corner on the fringes of the fire's heat with her cards splayed on the table before her. Even with her spot warmer than most, not one soul stayed by her table. She was the gixie with the grief-mad mother, brought up by the uncharitable town hedgewitch, and whose fortunes came eerily true, particularly the bad. If she had learned one thing about reading fortunes, it was that no one wanted the truth. The knowledge had come too late, and her only customers were travelers who stopped over for a night in this gods forsaken village.

When a bitter wind swept in, she glanced towards the door. In its frame stood a blonde young woman, looking to be only a scant few years younger than Kora's own eighteen. She was on her way to becoming tall and leanly muscled, but the sword hanging from her belt still looked awkwardly large. Most of the men smirked outwardly and many of the women tittered from behind their hands. She strode to the bar, stone faced while being heckled as she waited for her ale.

"Hey, sweet thing, put down that sword. You couldn't even lift it; mine's much more your size," a vile cove leered, winking at the blonde.

Kora felt the intense urge to spell him into dust, but the other girl got to him first, drawing her blade and touching its tip to the man's adam's apple quicker than he could breathe.

"I think I can handle my own well enough, thanks." She grabbed her tankard off the bar and turned away to settle herself in Kora's corner. Her blade was still drawn when she sat down and she laid it across her table, never moving her sword hand more than a few inches from the hilt.

"You've a good hand with a sword," Kora remarked.

The blonde flinched for a moment, as if expecting more hassling but her defensiveness melted when she absorbed the compliment.

"I've trained hard to get that way. Of course, testing my blade on backwards coves makes it more fun." She grinned widely.

Kora couldn't help but laugh. "You've come to the right place then. You won't find a more backward town than this. I'd like to bash some of their heads myself, but I'm stuck with spelling chaos on their homes."

"You're a mage?"

"A passible one, but I've never had a chance to truly study. I can do basic magic and charms, tell fortunes and a few other things, but I have only been able to study under the village hedgewitch."

The other girl looked down at the cards laid out on the table. "Would you read my fortune?"

"Sure, ah..." Kora trailed off waiting for the other girl to introduce herself.

"Aniki. Aniki Forfrysning." She started to fish her purse out of the pack she had dumped beside the table.

"I'm Kora Ingensra. And put your money away, seeing Fergdin taken down a peg is payment enough." She stuck out her hand and Aniki clasped it firmly.

--


	2. Protection

**Prompt: 30. Occupational hazard**

Aniki returned to the room she rented with Kora well past midnight. A tear ran down the side of her shirt revealing a sloppily half healed gash across the pale skin over her ribs.

On hearing the creak of the door, the other woman roused from the haze of light dreams. "You're back later than usual tonight."

"I had to make a stop on the way home," Aniki said, trying to rest her arm so that it covered the rip in her side.

Even touched with sleep, Kora's eyes were too sharp to miss the defensive maneuver. She gave the blonde a look that carried the threat of intense interrogation. "You got hurt."

"Yes," Aniki replied, even though it was clearly not a question. Stripping the shirt off over her head, she pointed out the wound. "I fell for a feint and bastard was too quick and caught me in the side."

Kora pursed her lips as she ran her finger down the length of the cut, marking the points of contact that made the other woman's flesh jump. "You couldn't at least have gone to a decent healer? I would have done a better job than this."

"There's no such thing as a decent healer in this town."

Ignoring the chills the icy floor sent running down her spine, Kora crawled from under the covers and opened the trunk that lay at the bed's footboard. She pulled out a collection of jars and laid them down on the quilt.

"Sit," she ordered abruptly.

Aniki complied instantly; this had happened enough that it had become an unconscious habit not to contest Kora's will.

"I'm almost out of this wound cream," she muttered as she dipped her finger into the jar. "You need to start getting hurt less."

"It's an-"

"-Occupational hazard, I know. It still doesn't mean that I have to like patching you up on a regular basis." Kora smoothed the salve on top of the wound, making sure to get some in every crevice of the scab.

"Hey, that tickles!" Aniki gasped, flinching away from the sensation.

"Stop getting hurt and I won't have to keep doing it."

"Kora, it's a fact of my job. You can't expect me to be a hired sword and not get a little banged up."

Kora pressed a kiss to the point of Aniki's shoulder, then leaned her forehead against it. "I just worry."

"That much is obvious." She yawned. "Can you hurry up so we can go to bed? I'm exhausted."

Unscrewing the top of the final jar, Kora spread some of its contents along the most sensitive parts of the cut. "There, I'm done." She placed the jars back in the trunk and then grabbed a thick shirt and loose breeches from Aniki's clothes press and tossed it her way.

Aniki changed quickly and nestled in between the covers. When Kora got into bed behind her, she relaxed into the other girl's body and almost instantly entered into a blissfully quiet sleep. Kora was not so lucky. She lay on the threshold of sleep, her arms looped around Aniki's waist with one hand resting over the cut, as if to protect it - and her - from further harm.

--


	3. Bookish

**Prompt 58. Celebration**

The moan of the door issued Aniki into the room, followed closely by a chorus of metallic _tinks _when she dropped her coin purse on the table. Barely looking up from the book on her lap, Kora gave a sort of noncommittal noise that could almost be interpreted as a hello.

"We're celebrating!" Aniki exclaimed as she flopped down in one of the rickety, wooden chairs around the table.

"What are we celebrating?" There were ridges of concentration built into Kora's forehead as her eyes stayed trained on the page in front of her.

"I got paid!"

"What a big surprise." Almost reverently, she drew her finger down the page before flipping to the next carefully so the aged paper would not rip.

Aniki stretched and propped her foot up on the table so she was reclining on only the back legs of the chair. "He doubled the money we agreed on for protecting him last night. We could have a nice meal at that place you like, the one over on Merchant Street and I heard that one of the sellers at the market has some fruit from the south. It's supposed to be delicious."

"Maybe we can do it tomorrow," Kora said detachedly.

Aniki tried to make out the writing from over Kora's shoulder, but gave up quickly as her eyes refused to focus in on the words. "What are you reading that has you turning down peaches?"

"A text on transmutation. Gamel gave it to me to read and said it's a good starting point for going into more advanced magic. I want to be able to discuss it with him tomorrow." Finally allowing her gaze to drift from the book to the other girl, Kora gave her an exasperated stare. "We'll do something tomorrow, just let me finish reading."

"How about we stay in then? I brought some really good elderberry wine." Aniki rose from her seat and moved so she was standing behind Kora, resting her hands on the other girl's shoulders.

"I still nee- oh."

Using the pads of her thumbs, Aniki pressed small circles into the fleshy curves where Kora's shoulders joined with her neck. The gentle kneading began to unravel the stiffness from bending over the text for long hours.

"If you think I'm - ah - that easy to distract, you're-" She arched, cat-like, as the fingers moved to the column of her neck, smoothing over the graceful lines of muscle.

"-Absolutely right." Aniki said, grinning. Sensing a moment of hesitation she added, "I'll even leave you alone tomorrow if you want so that you can finish the book."

The press of lips just below her ear edged any thoughts of transmutation to the corners of Kora's mind, and the waves of air from Aniki's next words banished them entirely.

"Come to bed."

The book dropped from her lap as she slowly drew herself up to face Aniki. One of her hands looped around the blonde's neck and the other eased under the edge her shirt. She sought out the other girl's lips for a kiss, breaking it only to murmur, "It was a kind of boring book anyway."

--


	4. The Unnoticed

Author's Note: I'm not as pleased with this as I am with some of the others, but I need to put some space between me and it, so here it is.

**Prompt 22. Senses**

Aniki knows better than to wake Kora up before ten if she wants to get away without her hair being singed. Instead, she takes in the things she never thinks about during the day. She runs her fingers through Kora's hair, untangling any snarls that it wound into during the night. Darker strands weave in and out of the even chestnut, creating a rich brown. The weak morning light filtering through the window defines any shadows and casts a pale circlet around her head.

Slightly flushed in sleep, Kora's face is smooth and almost still, except for her eyes, which flit beneath her eyelids, and their lashes, which move in time. Aniki ghosts her forefinger along the soft line of her jaw and around the point of her heart shaped face. Her lips part with a shallow sigh before she burrows deeper into the pillow. Aniki presses her lips against the back of Kora's hand and tastes the traces of lavender and chamomile that she had worked with that afternoon.

One of Kora's hands is folded beneath her head and the other stretches out to meet Aniki's shoulder. Her body is rounded into a gentle crescent and her legs twine with the the blonde's. Aniki likes these unconscious touches most of all; they tell her more than any amount of canoodling that Kora wants her, trusts her, needs her, loves her.

At night, after every lamp has been doused, Kora curls up behind Aniki and lets herself take in the things that she never thinks about during the day. Aniki falls into sleep easily - for all the time she is on guard during the day, she drops her defenses as soon as she slips between the sheets - but Kora's mind never seems to give in easily. Against her chest, Kora can feel the muscles in her partner's back relax. With their locked hands, her fingers tips meet the sinewed back of Aniki's hand, while her palm rubs against the callouses from daily swordsmanship.

For all the harshness in her muscled form, her skin is satiny. Tracing her fingers down Aniki's body, Kora can note with startling precision each scar drawn across her flesh. Instead of lingering on mortality, she slides her fingers through the blonde hair she can not see; like her skin, it manages to stay smooth against the forces of sweat, dirt, blood. Still, there is much in Aniki seems a little coarse: the firm angles instead of forgiving curves, the sprawl of her limbs, the dry crackle on her lips, her somewhat obnoxious snore.

Kora soothes her mind with the slow even _shhh_ of Aniki's breath and the light musk in the air around her. It reminds her of the relaxation the other girl succumbs to so easily in sleep. In this defenselessness, Kora that knows that Aniki wants her, trusts her, needs her, loves her.

--


	5. Cutting Losses

Author's Note: Sorry about not getting a drabble up yesterday; real life actually seems to have started up again, and today was my birthday which was a bit distracting on the writing front. Updates are going to become a little less frequent because I've finished up posting my stock piled pieces and am now just working from one writing project to the next, however, I have a nice long drabble for you today to make up for it. I've neglected to say this before, but I would also love you dearly if you left some reviews; reviews make me happy and a happy writer is more productive. :grin:

* * *

**a. Prompt 90. A necessary conversation**

It was the first time Ersken had seen Rosto look awkward, and he wondered if he would ever see it again. He didn't think so.

"Did Kora ever tell you about Aniki?" Rosto asked, running his fingers impatiently along the back of a chair.

"Kora tells me a lot of things about Aniki."

"I mean, did she tell you about _her _andAniki?"

"They're best friends; what's there to tell?"

Rosto no longer looked so out of sorts, but still continued to tap out a staccato beat on the chair. "I don't know quite what they think of these things in Tortall, but in Scanra it was all kept behind closed doors. Some would just ignore it, some would shun it, and for some, well, violence wasn't out of the question."

Ersken's face went flat in a mixture of confusion and suspicion. "What are you saying?"

"Not all mots lay with just men, and some don't lay with coves at all." The uneasiness had seeped back into Rosto's fingers, but his voice remained smooth.

"Are you insinuating that -"

"-Your gixie likes to canoodle with other gixies? Then, yes." Now that the great reveal had passed, Rosto stopped his fidgeting.

"But she, she... And with Aniki?" Frantic changes of emotion ruled Ersken's face, mainly warring between disbelief and faint comprehension. When Rosto pushed the chair out to him, he gratefully collapsed into it.

"They were. For a long time, since before I met them even. A few months back, they ended things for a time. I'm not quite sure why, and I know it's not my place to to ask. She's a good mot and she'll tell you; I just thought you might want to hear it from someone who's not involved. Aniki might gut me for telling you this, but I didn't want you be caught off guard."

**b. Prompt 92. Blast from the past**

When Rosto had looked into Aniki's room the night before, he was as surprised as he had been a year and a half ago when he had first seen them. Tonight, though, the unexpectedness sprang from an altogether different reason. Kora's hand cupped on the other girl's cheek and Aniki's fingers were laced behind the brunette's waist. Her face was lifted upward as she guided Aniki's lips down to her own.

"What about Ersken?" Aniki asked only a hair's breadth away from the kiss.

Kora turned slightly to the side. "I'll tell him. He's wonderful and sweet and kind, but he's not you, and I've missed you for far too long. Another mot will come around for him, one that's not already sworn herself away."

In state of dazed remembrance, Rosto could line up the vision in his mind of the first time he had seen them with the scene playing out before him almost exactly. There still was not quite a desperate urgency in their kisses, but instead there was the same kind of longing sated only by their closeness he had seen in them before. Their bodies fell into the same silhouette, and they were as much in love as they had been when he first saw them together.

He wished Ersken the best of luck in finding a new mot.

**  
c. Prompt 54. Point of view**

Surprise hit hard on my chest even while things clicked into place in my head. Their constant closeness of both body and mind, their complete acceptance of every flaw, their sense of absolute trust that I'd only ever seen before in couples bonded as tightly as life and death. I couldn't help feeling like a fool with everything laid out so plain.

Seeing them so newly cast, I couldn't bring myself to keep them apart. It pained to let her go, and I can still find resentment lingering in the outer fringes of my heart, but it felt worse to keep Kora clutched to me with that knowledge.

**  
d. Prompt 84. Inevitable**

"I need to talk to you." The words from Kora and Ersken's mouths came out exactly even, matching the syllables in perfect time.

"You go first," Ersken said, blushing a brilliant red.

For a moment, Kora looked like she was going to contest, but catching the sense of anxiety rising from him, she wanted to shield away any misunderstanding. "I have something to tell you." She stopped to take a breath and organize what she planned to say. "Aniki and I used to be lovers. We were that way for a long time, but for a while we had ended things."

"I know," Ersken interrupted. "Rosto told me. It's what I was going to talk to you about."

"He told you...? Aniki is going to kill him..." A strange range of expressions ran across her face. "Did he tell you anything else?"

"Just that he didn't want me to be caught off guard. Why would he say that?"

Kora looked at her slippered feet. "She - we - wanted to go back to that. I know it's horrible and cruel to you, but -"

"-You love her."

"Yes. I have for years."

Ersken rolled the tail of his belt in his hand. "Did you ever care about me like that?"

"I never take up with someone I don't care about. I certainly never intended for things to turn out this way and I feel terrible to hurt you like I am now. There's just something with her..." she trailed off.

"I understand. Well, I don't think I really quite understand it, but I understand the idea."

Kora reached her hand out to his shoulder and gave him a soft, wistful look. "We'll stay friends, right? I don't want you out of my life."

"I'll try."

She gazed at him in a still, subtle moment, trying to fix his over bright eyes and firm expression in her mind, and wondered how much friendship could really be salvaged.

--


	6. Shelter

Author's Note: You know you're a nerd when you actually look up Scandinavian names for places and characters that you barely touch on. I'd also like to thank Dovebean, Mage of Dragons, and Emmalia for reviewing and encourage everyone to review because reviews make authors happy and happy authors don't kill people... ahem ...I mean update faster. Really, that's exactly what I meant. Honestly.

* * *

Prompt 9. Instinct

In Scanra, even a mild winter is stiff, filled to the brim with hardship, hunger, death. The cold stomps through homes, fracturing what little hope had been mustered up during the rest of the year. Animals seem to know more about surviving the winter than people in the way they ball together in their dens for heat and moderate the rations collected before the first frost. They certainly do not try to travel from Ravndal to Stenhus during an ice storm.

Both Kora and Aniki know this, but when they left the tavern yesterday the sky was clear and the wind only biting, rather than tearing away at flesh the way it usually does. Now they make camp on the side of a snow bank facing away from the wind. It is harder to pitch a tent in ice, first needing to crush through the firm outer layer and then find purchase in the unstable snow beneath. When it finally pops into place, the women survey the structure from a short distance away.

"It looks awfully weak," Kora says, letting go of some of the magic she had been using to keep herself and Aniki warm. The temperatures are sure to drop even lower once the sun fully abandons the sky and she will need the strength then.

"I don't really think we can do any better, unless you want to use some of your Gift." Aniki rests her hand on the cotton wrapped hilt of her sword and casts an appraising eye over the tract of forest around them. "I don't see any game and I'm not keen on heading off the path in this storm. Do you know if we have enough food?"

"Maybe for tonight and the morning." Kora rifles through the pack she had been carrying on her shoulder. "We'll need to get something more when we reach Stenhus. I think it might be wisest to stay there until spring. And I've barely enough strength left to hold the warming spells in place as it is."

The sleet comes down harder now, and the grains of ice hit with a greater intensity, leaving red marks on their faces, the only bare flesh the elements can reach. Kora shrugs her winter clothes tighter around her and kneels in the snow just before the entrance flap of the tent. Using the few dry twigs she had collected while Aniki pitched the tent, she builds them into a cone suited for catching flame. With a snap of her fingers, it ignites, though the warmth it emits is modest at best, and the flames feeble, threatening to go out with the slightest shift in the air.

The women sit hunched in the shadow of the tent to block the wind intent on bludgeoning them while they eat. They try to savor each bite, even though it is salted meat and stale bread, because if the storm keeps them from Stenhus it could easily be their last. The time for words has passed, leaving them only the cackling wind. They turn into their respective bedrolls silently, but their mouths still move in prayers to the Goddess. It is almost a goodbye when they clasp hands before drawing back into the shells of their bedrolls.

It is less than an hour later when Kora's survival instinct shakes her from the growing freeze in her limbs. In a sudden burst of clarity, she knows what to do, how to live and how to keep Aniki alive. That knowledge does not help her shudder any, though, when she pulls herself out of the slight shield of her bedroll and into the violent assault of the cold.

"Aniki," she murmurs, crouching over the other girl's head. "Wake up."

"Can't wake up when I'm not asleep. It's too sarden cold." She stares up at Kora. "Why in the Goddess' name aren't you in your bedroll? Didn't you get the message that it's frozen enough to snap your fingers off?"

"Move over."

"What?"

"Move over. It will be warmer if we share. A body will keep you warm better than just a blanket by itself." Kora is already edging her way towards the mouth of the bedroll when Aniki pushes it farther open.

The warmth of Aniki's body thaws out Kora and she draws herself closer to it. Her chest is pressed flush against the other girl's and her head rests in the valley of Aniki's neck. It had been years since she laid close to someone like this, since before her sister died. If the woodpile ran low in the middle of winter, they would curl together, Valdis fitting snugly into the bow of Kora's body.

Now it feels much different, wrapped in someone else's body rather than the other way around. There is something else, a faint tingle, a depth of touch, she had never felt with her sister, and she is glad of that, because it feels far from sisterly. Rather than think on it, she succumbs to the secure sleep that warmth brings.

When day breaks, Kora can feel that the air is still and less tinged with frost, but she pretends the storm is as tempestuous as the night before just to relax into the secure closeness.

--


	7. Proper Romancing

Author's Note: This is rather fluffy and deserving of the "T" rating. In a linear timeline, this would directly follow "Cutting Losses," but you don't need to have read that in order for it to make sense. Also, once I set up a fandom journal on LJ, I may be posting a higher rated, extended version of this scene in case anyone is interested. Once again, reviews will be loved and cherished.

* * *

Prompt 83. Rediscovery

Aniki sat on the side of Kora's bed as waited for her to come back from her talk with Ersken. As she rolled the sheets between her fingers, she let a slightly giddy grin play over her lips. The mattress was forgiving, the bedclothes were soft and somehow sleek, and the pillows were downy. She intended on spending a lot of time in this bed from now on, and not just because it of its coziness.

The door swung inwards softly, halting altogether a few moments before it would have met the wall. Kora's lips were tilted downwards until she saw Aniki lounging on the bed.

"You're still here," she said, eyes lighting immediately.

"Did you think I'd make you end things with Ersken just to disappear?" Aniki replied, propping her head up on her hands.

"Not really, it's still just nice to see. Already making yourself at home on my bed?"

Aniki flashed a sly look. "Well, I do plan on getting very comfortable with it."

"I think that's something we can work on," Kora said as she offered her hand to pull the other woman up.

Aniki took her hand, though it was not without protest. "Why am I getting up?"

"Because you're going to romance me proper; I don't just fall into bed for anyone," Kora said coyly.

Aniki rose so that her body was pressed flush against the other woman's, their faces only held apart by their height difference. Twining her fingers into brown hair, she tipped the other woman's head up so that their eyes aligned as Kora rose on her toes to kiss her. Kora took a sort of comfort from softness of the blonde's lips behind their chapped exterior. It was the familiarity of things - months from the last time they had truly kissed, and still, some things did not seem to change. In her own turn, Aniki noticed the differences, all small and simple - the curl of her hair, the slightly deeper curve to her waist - finding her way through all that she had missed.

When Aniki parted her lips, Kora's tongue darted in to tangle with hers. She could map every nook and plane in her mouth, but tried to set out anew, find anything she might have overlooked. Her quest was cut short though as Aniki withdrew, instead moving to focus on the column of her neck.

"You're absolutely beautiful," she said to Kora in between kisses. One of her hands drifted downward to cup the nape of Kora's neck beneath her chestnut hair. It gradually slid down farther, in between her shoulder blades, down her spine until it rested on the hollow just above her lower back.

Kora looked at Aniki through her lashes. "Then you are unbelievable." When she saw Aniki raise begin to raise her head to disagree, she added, "Truly."

Often those words sounded awkward, trite, silly, and best left unsaid. But today, today they were welcome reaffirmations of moments past.

--


	8. A New Tune

**Prompt 62. Intruder**

The din of the tavern made Aniki lean close to Kora just to hear what she was saying. Pans clattered in the kitchen, and a chorus of hoots, yells, giggles, and idle conversation swarmed around the main room.

"I'm working on some protective spells for one of the Rogue's chiefs, Bernt from Upper Side," Kora said, speaking as loudly as she could without yelling.

Aniki nodded. "He's a good man, as fair as you can expect from someone who's a puppet to the Rogue." She broke off and waved the barman over. "Another ale please-"

"Have it on me. Two mots as pretty as you shouldn't need to pay for their own drinks," a butter smooth male voice cut in.

Aniki took the opportunity to give an exaggerated roll of her eyes for Kora's benefit before turning to look at the interloper. He was lean and pale as the blizzard just outside the door. His cornsilk blond hair was tied in a horsetail and a 'y' shaped scar was written through one eyebrow. She raised her own eyebrow questioningly.

"Rosto the Piper," he said. "And who are you lovely ladies?"

Kora stifled a laugh behind her hand with a violent coughing fit and Aniki was highly tempted to do the same.

"I'm Aniki Forfrysning and my friend is Kora Ingensra," she said, placing a strange, lilting inflection on 'friend.'

Reining in her laughter, Kora gave a demure nod before focusing her attention back on the dregs of her ale.

"Aniki... I think I've heard your name at the Court of the Rogue. You're a rusher, but I can't remember who you've sworn to," Rosto said, passing the drinks the barman gave him over to the two women.

"At the moment? Whoever has the biggest purse. I haven't heard of you though."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm somewhat new and I figure it's best to stay out of the way until I can feel out the place. I'll have plenty of time to get into trouble later." A wink accompanied his last statement.

Kora fixed her attention on the cove. "Where do you come from?"

"A tiny town to the north, near Ebeltoft. I came down a month or so ago."

She looked at him with greater interest. "I'm from Ebeltoft, but I've been out of the area with her-" she pointed her thumb at Aniki "-a good year or more. Do you happen to know anything of Agata, the village healer?"

"She patched me up pretty well after I got into a bar brawl with some idiot. Fergdin, I think his name was."

"Wasn't he the one I had to knock around?" Aniki interrupted.

Kora quickly shushed her. "Sometime, you'll have to tell me of any news you've heard from up there. Not tonight though, I don't want to risk any bad tidings. I'd probably get all soppy and cry on her new shirt."

"You could always come to cry on _my_ shirt."

This Rosto fellow was tenacious; Aniki had to give him that. Still, it seemed to only make her want to laugh more or perhaps give him a tap with the flat of her sword.

With a laugh, Kora replied, "I wouldn't want to muss your clothes. She doesn't care much for her own and leaves me piles of laundry with worn out seams. Of course, she'll polish her sword five times a day if she gets the chance."

"And only my own. If anyone asks for me to do theirs, they make a nice dummy for my point control drills," Aniki said unable to resist the dig at the words that she knew hung on his lips.

Rosto winced at the thought. "Your blade must be deadly if it's as sharp as your tongue."

"How else do you think I got my name in at Court?" Looking over to Kora, Aniki asked, "I think I've had enough to drink for the night. You want to head up?"

"I could do with some sleep. I'd rather not be dozing when I'm doing spellwork," Kora said. As she and Aniki rose, she gave a quick smile to Rosto. "You'll have to give me some news on Ebeltoft next time we meet."

Another one of Rosto's sly smiles slid onto his face. "I could always come help you gixies into bed."

Aniki made a point of resting her hand on the hilt of her sword when she replied with a barbed grin of her own, "I don't think we need the kind of help you have in mind."

With that said, the two women climbed the stairs out of the main drinking room and into the apartment they rented on the second floor. The air was harsher here, away from the clump of hot bodies below, so when Kora came up behind her and wrapped her arms around her waist, Aniki welcomed the warmth of the embrace.

"You know, that spintry did have a good idea," Kora said, tucking a straw colored lock behind Aniki's ear.

"Oh, what's that?"

"I, at least, would like some help into bed." Kora ran her finger down the length of Aniki's muscled upper arm.

Aniki spun in Kora's arms to give her a kiss. "Then help you'll have."

--


	9. Prized Possession

Author's Note: The US women's sabre fencing team blew all the competition out of the water with their sweep of all of the individual women's sabre medals. Because I'm a sabre fencer, I was ecstatic and decided to celebrate with a drabble. Reviews are loved and given ice cream sundaes.

* * *

Prompt 14. Weapon of choice

The last of the green-blue magic swirled around the blade of the sword before seeping into the steel. In the dim light, it still cast a faint glow, but the dramatic effects of the casting had passed. Kora retracted her hands and rested them on the edge of the rough hewn table.

"I've cast just about every protection spell I can think of on it. It shouldn't break, and you won't need a whetting stone to keep the edge and point sharp," Kora said as she watched Aniki slide her fingers reverently along the flat of the blade.

"I can't believe I really have one of my own. These swords are incredible, the best you can get. And specially made by Master Watson. Even some knights can't get their hands on these. Are you sure you don't mind? I mean, I could have keep us fed on fancy food for a year with the cost of this." Even as she voiced her concerns, Aniki never once turned her eyes from the sword as she spoke.

"We have enough without it. Besides, you said you'd been using that old blade since you first started training, and it was a piece of junk then and a liability now. I'm not going to have you go die on me because your blade breaks."

Aniki, however, seemed to have forgotten she had asked the question. She gripped the hilt, drawing the sword out in front of her. It lay lightly in her hand, balanced evenly on either side of the cross-guard that acted as a fulcrum. Picking a finger on her left hand, she ran it along its edge and felt the skin split easily. A small wash of blood slicked the blade.

Kora looked mildly appalled. "What was that about?"

"A sword isn't truly yours until it has something of you on it."

--


	10. Lost

Author's Note: Sorry for being a horrible updater on this one. Real life stuff has been well and truly insane (at least _I'm_ not insane this time), to the point that I had neither the time nor the energy to write. Unfortunately, I can't promise quick updates anymore with the semester starting next week, but I'll try to do the best I can. Reviews will be loved and cherished.

* * *

Prompt 80. Realization

There were times when Aniki had come home with battle wounds that would bring a lesser person to tears, weathering them with only a pained smile and a feeble joke. Now, her face was drawn taunt and her eyes were wet as they raced frantically back and forth from the door to her hands. She had worried her nails past the quick, peeling back the skin, dotting it with small cuts and sores. A flow of distraught Scanran bled from her lips.

"What's she saying?" Beka whispered to Rosto next to her. The two of them and Aniki were penned up in the hallway outside of Beka's room, just _waiting_ for the door to open. "And what exactly happened?"

"She's cursing strong enough to make me blush," he said worriedly. When he continued, a fierce anger coupled with distress coiled in his words. "Kora went out to get some herbs from the Nightmarket as Court was wrapping up. On her way back, only one alley down from here, some cove caught ahold of her. She used some of her Gift to call Aniki and used the rest of what she had to try to get at him, but he must have had something to ward off magic because nothing stuck. He bloodied her up pretty bad without any weapons before he drew a dagger. By the time we got to her, he'd started cutting her out of her dress. He stabbed her when he saw us and said it was a gift for me, to show me how much he appreciated outsiders coming in to take the Rogue's throne. I don't think you want to know what happened to him."

Aniki's sword lay unsheathed where she had dropped it, red liquid beads still clinging to its edges, Rosto's knuckles were turning a brackish purple, and despite her duty to uphold the peace of Corus, Beka felt glad they had taken what vengeance they could. She even wished she could have helped.

Whatever Aniki had done to the man seemed to have tempered her anger for the moment; now she just seemed lost.

She broke from her rumblings in Scanran and said with a voice that seemed much too small for her, "I always thought it would be me."

Rosto broke away from Beka to grab Aniki's elbow and pull her in close. "What?"

"I never thought she'd go before me. I'm the one that's out fighting and getting into any violence. Kora... She's innocent in all of this. She never picked a fight, or even much stood by one. I never, never thought I would be the one mourning." The tears in her blue eyes began to overflow and carve tracks down her cheeks.

Catching her face in his hands, Rosto locked onto her gaze. "She's still alive, so don't mourn yet. The healer thinks she still has a chance and crying over it isn't going to help her any."

Aniki seemed to have barely heard his words. "Is this how she feels? When I come home hurt, is this what it's like for her? The knot in your throat that refuses to leave and only thinking 'please don't let her die,'" her words turned into a rolling plea, "don't let her die, please don't let her die, please don't-"

Breaking from her spot frozen to the floor, Beka moved to lay her hand on the distraught woman's shoulder. "She won't die. Elspeth is one of the best healers in all Corus; the Dogs even use her when someone is hurt too badly for the Kennel healers to handle."

"How can she do this?" Aniki asked desperately. "How doesn't Kora go mad with worry?"

Finding no satisfactory answer, Beka just ran her fingers in soothing circles along the the muscles of Aniki's upper back. The swordswoman closed her eyes as if attempting to anchor herself to some new, kinder place.

Her eyes snapped open immediately when she heard the faintest _scritch_ from the door. A wizened, pale face peeked out from the entryway. Motioning to the tall blonde, the healer said, "She wants to see you. Now, she's still in a bad way, but as soon as she came to she wouldn't stop asking for you. I'll let you see her, but only for a few minutes; I have more healing to do on her yet and she needs rest."

Aniki's hands shook as she followed Elspeth into Beka's room. The healer had managed to draw a curtain around the bed, shielding Kora from view, and once Aniki stepped past it, she knew why. The bed sheets had been stained the color of yew berries, and Kora's body still looked shockingly battered. Aniki reached out a hand to cup the other woman's face, then thought better of it, leaving her fingers hovering a few inches away.

"A touch isn't going to break me, you know," Kora said hoarsely, brown eyes fixing on Aniki from between swollen lids. "Just because I'm hurt doesn't mean I don't want to feel you here."

Unfurling her fingers, Aniki brushed them against the other woman's cheek. She was surprised that despite the purples and blacks dyed into Kora's skin, it still felt the same under her hand.

"I was so worried about you," she said in voice that tried to be strong, but never quite gained the security to become so. "I couldn't stop thinking that I might have missed my last time with you. If you had gone..."

Kora smiled wanly, though she could feel bruises protesting the simple movement. "I'm not planning on going anywhere now. There's too much I'd miss. You, for one thing."

"You'd better not. I don't think it would be a fair fight if I had to challenge the Black God to get you back," Aniki tried to joke with a sniffle.

Sighing deeply, Kora leaned her head more against her lover's hand. "I think she wants you to leave."

Aniki cast a look behind her to see the old woman staring critically at her. She leaned over to brush Kora's lips with her own.

Still bent over the other woman, Aniki whispered in her ear, "I'll be back as soon as the warden over there lets me in again."

As she edged her way out, the knot tied itself in her throat again and she returned to her place lost in helplessness.

--


	11. Damage

Author's Note: College workloads can be a truly evil thing. I've had barely any time to write for myself, so my fanfic has been on the back burner, which has been very unfortunate for Kora and Aniki considering where the last drabble left off. For all the abuse most of my characters take, I just can't torture these two and, in order to make up for the events in "Lost," this follows directly after and has a much happier ending.

* * *

Prompt 33. The morning after

When dawn breaks, it casts sharp, cleansing rays over the scene in Beka's bedroom. The light wraps around Aniki to pull her from her already restless sleep. Its pale tendrils smooth over Kora's supine form on the bed, banishing shadow bruises to make way for even planes of skin. Blearily blinking her way back into consciousness, Aniki rises from her chair next to the bed to comb her fingers through the other woman's brown hair. She marvels at the healer's work; the purples and blacks were beginning to leach away and the glaring cuts had knitted together into thin white lines.

Even with most of Kora's surface wounds beaten back, Aniki feels her hand shake as she rolls the chestnut strands between her fingers. Her breath doubles back in her throat for a moment as Kora rolls onto her side, but after that she lays still, and the breath releases itself. The ugly mess of bruising and deep cuts on her chest still glares up from beneath the partial shield of the nightgown, though it is smaller in size than it had been the night before. Against her will, Aniki's hand reaches out to touch the wound. Even with her fingers resting against what was almost the end of Kora's life, she worries that is not the real damage, that the real damage lays behind her shuttered eyes.

As if prompted by Aniki's musings, Kora's eyes open and stare out, unfocused, until they find the shape of Aniki at her bedside. Kora draws her hand up to rub at her eyes and gives a wide yawn.

"What time is it?"

Aniki grins, her apprehensions momentarily brushed aside. She finds a bit of humor in Kora asking such a banal question on waking up after last night's events. "Probably a little past seven or so. How do you feel?"

"A lot better than yesterday certainly. I don't hurt as much and you're with me, so things are looking up." She reaches her hands over her head into a gentle stretch. She winces. "Okay, that part still hurts," she says gesturing to the wound on her chest as she lowers her arms. Taking in Aniki's concerned expression, she adds, "How are _you_?"

"Fine, just fine."

"You look the exact opposite of fine. What has you so grim?"

"You almost died! And that cove almost-" Aniki trails off.

Kora sighs and pushes herself higher up against the headboard. "But he didn't, and I'm alive. I'm not going to say I wasn't affected by it, or that it is all going to fly away never to be thought of again, but this will not break me. Just because I don't carry a sword, doesn't mean I'm more fragile than you."

"It's just that these sort of things aren't supposed to happen to you," Aniki says, balling her fists around the hem of her shirt.

"And they're supposed to happen to you? No, don't answer that, it was rhetorical," Kora adds, when she sees Aniki open her mouth to speak. "I knew what I risks I was taking when I got involved in the Court of the Rogue. I'd been lucky for a long time before this."

With a slight flush tinting her cheeks, Aniki nods. "I guess I know how you feel, now."

"It's not very fun, is it?"

"Not fun at all."

Kora smiles softly. "Have you slept any since last night?"

"I slept for a few hours in that chair. I only got up a few minutes before you did though."

"You really should have slept longer. There's no use in you wearing yourself out just because I'm not doing well. We can't have you falling asleep while you're at Court with Rosto tonight, because I _really_ don't want to have the healer need to stop by again. Get up here, so you can sleep in a real bed."

"No, I might roll you off or press on something that hurts," Aniki replies.

"We've been sharing a bed for over four years and you've never once pushed me out, even though you do steal the covers. I just want you to get some real rest."

Kicking off her boots, Aniki lies down on the mattress, her body softly angled against Kora's side. "I doubt I'll be able to actually sleep," she protests, even as she tries to restrain a yawn.

Kora stretches out a hand to rest on the other woman's cheek. "You need it. Stop worrying; I won't suddenly get worse while you sleep and I'm sure Beka and Rosto can help me if I need anything." Letting a few strands of her Gift flow through her fingertips, she murmurs, "Sleep."

Aniki's eyelids begin to slump. As her breathing slows into a quiet breeze, she amends her earlier thought: there might be damage, but it would not break Kora.

--


End file.
